Ceftriaxone To Be Tested In ALS Patients

A study of ceftriaxone , an antibiotic approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat certain infections, is now being tested as a potential treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at eight U.S. centers, under the direction of neurologist Merit Cudkowicz at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

If safety, tolerability and drug metabolism data obtained on 60 subjects early in the study are favorable, the investigators plan to enroll a total of 600 participants at 40 centers to determine ceftriaxone’s effect on survival.

The study is funded by the National Institutes of Health, but its scientific basis stems largely from MDA-funded research conducted by neuroscientist Jeffrey Rothstein at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Laboratory studies have suggested that ceftriaxone improves the removal of the potentially toxic nervous system chemical glutamate from the vicinity of the nerve cells that degenerate in ALS.

For more information, see Ceftriaxone - Trial in Subjects with ALS, or contact Fran Murphy at Massachusetts General Hospital at (617) 643-3980 or fmurphy@partners.org.